Coburn Kids

Caden weighed 1720 grams last night (3 lb. 13 oz.), we believe his weight previously putting him over 4 lb.’s was really off. We actually weren’t really happy with the nurses watching him last night.  It’s a hard thing to say really… the nurses (a mentor and then someone almost ready to be a NICU nurse) were very nice and talkative. But you can tell inexperience and while I don’t claim to be any expert both Daniel and I did not feel comfortable with them watching our little boy.

First off, Caden’s oxygen saturations were in the 100′s for over 40 minutes. This is not a good thing for his eyes, being kept at this level damages the blood vessels in the eyes. She was way too timid at lowering his oxygen that was at 38% when we came in. After many “suggestions and observations” from Daniel and I they finally got him lowered to 28% where his oxygen sat’s were much more normal in the low & mid 90′s.

Next, the trainee NICU nurse was not very comfortable or confident changing his bedding and at one point she disconnected his breathing tube and didn’t seem to know how to reset the machine. The other nurse had an edge of panic in her voice while coming over and telling her to hold the button down to restart it. Caden is having a lot of secretions right now and the oscillator machine keeps his lungs constantly inflated so that they never fully deflate.  Even deflating for a few seconds, as Caden’s did, can cause his lungs to collapse.  Caden must have that constant pressure to keep his lungs inflated. I know that mistakes can happen, but to see it happen on your own child who is so fragile is disturbing to say the least.

Another aspect I didn’t like was how loud these 2 women were. In an isolette the noise is actually amplified and to constantly hear that must have been deafening for him. I know that every nurse must have a “trial by fire” at some point but Daniel and I just did not feel comfortable knowing that an “almost NICU nurse” was taking care of 2 very sick preemies, Caden and Baby High.  I know she had her mentor there but it didn’t provide confidence.

As I said, the nurses were very nice but a parent really needs to feel confident in the nurses taking care of their little fragile baby. This is only the 2nd time in Caden’s hospital stay that we did not feel that confidence with a nurse.

Besides that, Caden’s feedings are going well. He’s on 31 cc’s every 90 minutes now. He’s been weaned from his morphine completely and is only getting hydrocortisone once a day now. He’s still getting his ativan (sedative) and last night was really upset before he got his dosage. Mommy had to calm him down and hold his little arms and legs. He’s having good diapers and his nitric has all ready been lowered to about 2.3 and he’s tolerating that excellent. His heart rate has been low as well, down in the low 100′s so that was something we hadn’t seen before and we’ll ask about that today.